I was born in Honduras, but since I was 8 years-old I have called Oklahoma my home.
Creating things has been my passion since I can remember. In fact, one of my aunts in Honduras still has a tiny toilet I made out of match boxes and a doll which created out of corn husks both at the age of five.

A few years later, and I was using my mom's curtains (small surprise to her when she arrived from work) to create Cabbage Patch doll clothes. So, my parents and I always knew I would be an artist.

I received my BFA from UCO in Edmond, where my focus was sculpture, primarily metalsmith.
It wasn't until I was 35 years-old that I decided to teach myself classical painting techniques. With a small set of oil paints, a cigar box and some old hardware which I used to fashion my very first pochade box, along with a couple of books and the internet and I was off. I haven't stopped since.

Since that very tiny matchbox toilet, my work (ceramics, metals, paintings, etc.) seem to be small scale works--some may even consider them miniatures. Maybe it's my 4'11" stature that has dictated the things that attract me. I'm not sure, but I have no desire to create large works in any medium. So, my paintings are up to 11"x11", but most are only 5"x7" or so.

I'm honored by collectors of my work in several countries around the world, mostly due to the internet. It's been seven years now since I first began to paint in oils and I am still learning and fighting with painting while being inspired by all the small things around me--everything from the fashion books and antiques I collect to the flowers in my yard and the honeycomb in our beehives.

In college I told a professor that I just wanted to make pretty things. He said "that is the worst way to describe an artwork." I let him know that I believe pretty things have power. A small flower can make a person smile, a tiny ring can mean devotion. On the other hand, pretty things (mostly jewelry and art) have been the cause of lost freedoms for some and war for others. There is a lot of power in pretty things.

I would love to say my work has some deep meaning of love lost, the purpose of life, or some important political statement, but that's not the case. My obsession with all things pretty and small, keeps me painting.

http://carolinaelizabeth-art.blogspot.com/